About this weblog

Here we'll explore the nexus of legal rulings, Capitol Hill
policy-making, technical standards development, and technological
innovation that creates -- and will recreate -- the networked world as we
know it. Among the topics we'll touch on: intellectual property
conflicts, technical architecture and innovation, the evolution of
copyright, private vs. public interests in Net policy-making, lobbying
and the law, and more.

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this weblog are those of the authors and not of their respective institutions.

This is sort of the canonical prior art: if you can show that an invention from a patent was in fact already known publicly then the patent can't stand. You can still patent new inventions related to the idea - for example, Apple's patent on providing word-by-word suggestions for auto-completion as users type is unlikely to be invalidated simply because someone described the general form and function of a tablet computer in 1994.

Still, Fidler's writings, videos, and demonstrations were public; the fact that they weren't patented doesn't lessen their potential value as relevant prior art. There's some chance as Rosenwald describes it that a good lawyer could show how Apple people were exposed to and potentially influenced by these ideas. Apple probably would still maintain the majority of its patent position even if certain design and foundational patents were invalidated, but its position would be significantly weaker. That may be why rumors are starting to float that Apple may want to settle. A settlement would foreclose the possibility of the patent portfolio being weakened and could leave Apple in a strategically stronger position than another partial win a full-length court case.